Beatles, Pink Floyd and David Bowie Help Vinyl Sales Grow by 15 Percent

The Beatles, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and other classic rock acts helped boost vinyl sales by 15 percent during 2018, Nielsen Music reported, as the traditional format set more records since the organization tracking began in 1991.

While the biggest-selling vinyl title was the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles and Prince came next in the Top 10, which can be seen below.

The Beatles were the best-selling act on vinyl, with three albums – Abbey Road, the White Album and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band all in the Top 15. That gave them a total of 321,000 sales, followed by Pink Floyd, Bowie, Panic! At the Disco and Fleewood Mac. The top-selling artists list can also be seen below.

Neilsen’s figures (via Billboard) showed that 16.8 million vinyl albums were sold during the year, an increase of 14.6 percent, the highest figure of the era and the 13th consecutive year of growth. Vinyl represented 11.9 percent of all album sales, which totaled 141 million – a 6.5 percent increase in representation. Vinyl sales also totaled 19.1 percent of all physical album sales, up 14 percent.

The percentage increases were partially caused by the continuing downturn in physical sales in general, which totaled 88 million, down 15.8 percent, while CDs totaled 70.7 million, down 20.9 percent. Digital album sales were also down, however, a 20.7 percent drop to 53.4 million.